


to the you who never gave up

by cottoncandyFRIZZ



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fan!Banri, Idol/Fan AU, M/M, and opening up to each other despite the disparity in their worlds, chance meetings on the train, concepts of hard work, idk why what possessed me to be ambitious to write a multich fic but here i am now, idol!Sakuya, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29220759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottoncandyFRIZZ/pseuds/cottoncandyFRIZZ
Summary: On the way home with nothing else to do, Banri Settsu gets invited by an idol on the street to watch their first performance. He decides to watch them perform to kill time, but he can’t keep his eyes off their center, who was also the same person to invite him to watch. They meet again on the train, and… the idol suddenly strikes up a conversation with him?
Relationships: Sakuma Sakuya/Settsu Banri
Kudos: 12





	to the you who never gave up

**Author's Note:**

> like i said, i dont know what happened to me that made me pursue this kind of thing, but here i am now. i've been working on this for around 10 months, with the idea just sitting in my head when i made the first draft back in may. i really really wanted to see idol/fan bnsk.
> 
> heavily inspired by a lot of the idol stuff i listen to on the regular--also as a rarepair shipper i gotta feed myself somehow. not beta'd im so sorry i dont have time
> 
> i'll try to update as regularly as i can! i hope you enjoy c:

If anything, today is extremely ordinary—a bored Banri Settsu kicking a cherry blossom petal on the ground, just finished hanging out with his friends. He doesn’t want to go home yet, and _certainly_ isn’t open to the idea to spend some time with other people right now. He makes a list in his mind: the arcade to beat Taruchi’s high score in every game. Find Hyodo and kick his ass. That one secondhand store to find new clothes.

It’s the usual for him. Boring, muted, monochrome. The scenic route that he took to kill more time doesn’t really help at all. He can’t help but feel that the cherry blossom trees in full bloom are probably a waste right now. He stops in his tracks and looks up a bit, the rays of light peeping through the flowers, the bright, almost cloudless sky suggesting a pleasant atmosphere. Banri stares at it blankly, but not in awe. It looks like he was trying to find something, anything, just like the feeling of adrenaline rushing through his veins after a fight.

He can’t.

“Um, excuse me…!”

A voice cuts his daze.

“We’re a new group and we’re having our first live right now! I hope you can see us perform!”

He finds himself looking at a shorter boy with bright red hair and equally-as-bright pink eyes, much like those flowers all around him. A quick glance at this boy suggests that he’s some kind of underground idol, with the costume and cookie-cutter cheerful personality expected of their kind. Before Banri can even say some sort of response, the idol points to a basic-looking stage and hands him a flyer. “We’ll be performing there!” he says. “I hope you can come! Thank you so much!”

Idols are never really his thing; sure, they were cute, and he liked some of them and the music they make, but this is a first for him. He feels like he is indebted to watch this rookie idol’s show, somehow. There aren’t many people near the stage, and he… kind of feels bad if no one shows up to their first live. _Might as well_ , he thinks, and heads to the audience.

They are a six-member idol group, with the redhead who invited him to watch as the center. Banri takes a look around to be met with only a handful of people—he could probably count them with his hands—some are _dressed_. Like _completely_ dressed in full wota gear, complete with the coat, bandana, and light sticks. It brings him some sort of comfort that _at least_ there are people who were hardcore. Makes the atmosphere a little less awkward for the idols, but certainly awkward for him. The fans start screaming as the idols begin with their standard greetings, each having their own turn.

“Thank you all for coming!” There’s the boy he met earlier. “Blooming with love, I’m Sakuya!”

So that’s his name.

“We’re really happy to see you attend our first live! I hope you stay until the very end!”

Sakuya is a little awkward, shouting his lines a little too loud. The fans find it extremely endearing, however, and that even gets the fans screaming even harder. He smiles at them and waves his hands at everyone in the audience. But his eyes, his eyes fall on Banri and lets out a small giggle.

_Cheap fanservice_ , he reminds himself. _But cute, not gonna lie._

“Please listen to our song!” Sakuya beams at the crowd, signaling the music to start and for them to start dancing. It is a typical, cheesy idol song, and Banri can see how new this idol group is. The other members are pretty okay, nothing too stellar, but not too bad. Sakuya, however, seems to enjoy it the most as the center, and his enthusiasm carries his minor slip-ups and that hint of nervousness in his voice. He doesn’t know the calls, of course, but the audience is super into the whole performance that he finds himself surprisingly enjoying it.

The bridge of the song comes on, and the choreography puts the redhead under the spotlight for his solo. From an upbeat tune, the song mellows down, and he sings with all his might: a melodious, warm voice, highlighted by the falling cherry blossoms all around them. Sakuya locks eyes with Banri again as he delivers his last lines in the bridge, shining pink meeting muted purple, and all Banri can feel is a sort of magical moment between just the two of them, without the distance between the stage and the audience.

If that’s an idol’s job, then Sakuya did his job spectacularly well. The idol group goes through the rest of the setlist, but Banri couldn’t stop thinking about their first song. The way this stranger holds his gaze with a smile so sweet and a twinkle in his eyes has left Banri so starstruck, as if the flowers he saw in full bloom earlier had more color to it now. No more of that dull monochrome.

He doesn’t want to admit it (he isn’t one to believe it in at all in the first place), but maybe this is love at first sight. All he wanted was something to pass the time, but he ends up here anyway; the feeling is trashy and sweet in a sickening way. He doesn’t like it, but oh, it was there.

It surprises him, actually, since he sees just how this Sakuya works hard on stage. His singing is far from perfect, even with all the rehearsals he probably had before this debut, the flubbed line in the MC segment before their last song is definitely a rookie mistake that could have been easily avoided—those were things that Banri never really understood.

But this time?

This time felt different.

Like he kind of wants to know more.

_Well that was unexpectedly pretty okay_ , he muses. It is nightfall and he is trying to catch a train home. Of all things, he never expected to watch some new group sing underneath the cherry blossoms, and for a certain someone to make him grab his attention—something that has _never_ happened to him since Hyodo left him wounded on the concrete. This is different, and the way this idol’s eyes shone got to him and came for his heart.

He says that he wants to see him again. But also he doesn’t want to admit it. It would be like losing again, after all, but this time it wasn’t to some fistfight or some game. His mind keeps on coming back to that image of Sakuya, looking at him directly, responding to him directly, as petals danced all around during his special moment in the song. Banri is completely floored, and is lost in thought on the train, not minding anyone else boarding the car, or even the conductor announcing that the doors would close.

“E-excuse me,” says someone next to him, accidentally brushing his shoulders as this passenger tried to find a place in the semi-crowded train.

_That sounds like…_

The guy next to him is wearing a mask and glasses, but that red fluff of hair was undeniably—

“Sakuya…?” came his surprised whisper. He means to keep that for himself, but he accidentally lets his thoughts become words.

He looks up at Banri. “You…?”

A gulp. Maybe he doesn’t remember?

“You were one of the audience members earlier…!”

Banri feels a pit in his stomach. _He does._

“Y-yeah,” is all he can muster.

“Thank you for watching our live!”

_Why the fuck do I feel so uneasy? I’m not usually like this!_

“Uh… yeah.”

The atmosphere is awkward, mostly just for him. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the guy that has been on his mind suddenly appears right next to him on a train, of all places. Should he strike up a conversation? Will Sakuya be the one to do it? And if he does, how will Banri even respond to that? For someone who lives on super ultra easy mode, and with communication and social skills to be envious about, he finds himself uncharacteristically unable to say something. And he doesn’t like it. Not one bit.

“Um, can I get your name?”

Goddammit, he was cute.


End file.
